HORSE-RACING

Horse-racing began in the Arab countries many centuries ago. It spread to most European nations by the eighteenth: century, and to the United States soon afterwards. In England, ‘the flat racing (As opposed to steeplechase racing which takes place in winter and ; spring. Flat racing is racing over a flat course) season from March to November includes ; five “Classic” races — designed to test the quality of the vear’s three-year-old colts and fillies. These Classics are the ’ Two Thousand Guineas (So called because this is the sum of prize money) and the One Thousand Guineas, both run at Newmarket; the Derby and the Oaks, both run at Epsom; and the St. Leger, at Doncaster. The jumping, or National Hunt season, includes the four-month period when flat racing has its annual break, so that in England theracing programme is continuous throughout the year, with at times as many as fifteen race meetings on one day. The great­est of the National Hunt races, the Grand National, is also recognized as the hardest in the world to win, for it has a con­siderable variety of obstacles, and also attracts a very large field of runners.